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TRAVEL ADVISORY; Pacific Aquarium Ready To Open in Long Beach

A new aquarium focusing on the Pacific Ocean is to open on Saturday in Long Beach, Calif. The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific will have three permanent galleries of exhibits on marine life from Southern California and Baja, the Northern Pacific and the Tropical Pacific.

The temperate waters of the tide pools and kelp forests of the Southern California coast and the Baja Peninsula are home to seals, sea lions and endangered sea turtles. Local predatory fish and jellyfish are also showcased.

In the Northern Pacific section, there are puffins and other diving birds, as well as sea otters, giant octopuses and giant spider crabs that lurk deep in the ice-cold Bering Sea.

The Tropical Pacific exhibit includes colorful fish from the lagoons and coral reefs of Micronesia.

Conservation issues are also addressed: the threat of pollution in Southern California, overharvesting in the North Pacific, and habitat preservation in the tropics. The aquarium's breeding programs focus on endangered species, like puffins. The aquarium also houses rehabilitated seals and sea lions that cannot be returned to the wild.

Over a million gallons of water is required to fill the nearly 50 tanks housing 10,000 creatures representing 550 species. The aquarium building, designed by Chuck Davis, who designed the Monterey Bay Aquarium, with a roofline that mirrors the waves of the ocean, is on a five-acre site on Rainbow Harbor, part of the new Queensway Bay waterfront redevelopment project.

The Aquarium of the Pacific, just off Shoreline Drive, will be open daily from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Admission is $13.95, $11.95 for ages 60 and up and $6.95 for ages 3 to 11. Information: (562) 590-3100, or through www.aquariumofpacific.org on the Web.